Lost & Found

:: i found Nabilah. i found a cheap new suitcase. i finally found a laptop lock. and i found out that i already have everything i need. ::

Nabilah and i met at the awesome Kickstart Cafe. this is like the kind of cafe that i am always looking for anywhere in the world. we sat and talked for hours. here is a breakdown of what went down:

mostly, Nabilah and i shared our travels. there were so many moments of recognition and points of connection, but the main thing that i took from it is the shared notion of journeying.

i was intrigued and inspired by Nab’s story because her travels were a series of one-way tickets. i find the action of buying a one-way ticket so bold. one doesn’t know how long they will be in a place, where they are headed to next, and how they will get there.

in contrast, what i have on this trip is a beginning and an ending. i knew that i would arrive in Singapore on May 22nd and be back in Singapore on June 7th to fly back to New York. everything else in between was an unknown. i enjoy this travel intinerary as well because i am a big believer of freedom within structure.

in both of our stories, we embraced this idea of knowing the destination but not how to get there. all while being open to the possibility that any and all of it might change. this is where adventure lives.

Nab is reading Neil Gaiman right now (whose books i had also noticed on Tim’s shelves) and brought up the notion of many realms—that anything that can happen is already happening because it is happening in parallel. she brought up my favorite new theory that everything we do is right (known affectionately to my collaborator John and i as EWDIR) to which i was shocked and delighted. and then, she took it one step further (which is a character trait that i adore in a person). she said that “everything we do becomes right eventually, because eventually is now.”

whoa, mind explosion!

and then the girl busts out a Plutarch quote. if i wasn’t sure of it the second we found each other on the streets of Singapore, then by the end of this meeting i was overwhelmed by the knowledge that i had found myself another Singaporean kindred spirit.

“what we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” ~Plutarch~

amen, sister.

< us sitting >

: photo by Junyang-photography.blogspot.com

then Nab took me to this exhibit across the street in the Substation:

< how fitting >

then Nab still had time before her next meeting and took me to find a new suitcase—one that would allow me to take only what i needed to Bali and nothing more. allowing me to shed myself of extra baggage. (in my psychologist mind, always a plus.)

and lo and behold, i found Tim getting out of work at exactly when we were finished.